Spiritual Thinking

If it's so easy, why is it so hard?

These are my thoughts and only my thoughts. I don't attempt to know anything. In fact, I'll swear that I am clueless. "Enlightenment is such a tangled web of intrigue. No wonder we're.......". -Auntie Lisa (Social Society of Nyame Dua 2017 )

A Gift of a Different "Name" Is Still the Same

Februauary 21, 2017

To give of yourself, completely , to a task. Your focus, your dedication, your drive and energy. Your mind IS your sacrifice , your offering. Not how beautiful, not how big, how small, how popular..... It's what it moves in you, what it brings to mind, how it reminds you of your blessings and lessons, and faults and failure in your life. The intensity of focus, not only by the artist, but by the audience- as I watched this video, understanding a pinpoint view that dissipates the worldly distractions and anything that is not a part of it. Art is my therapy. Ase'!

-Auntie Lisa

Go, Wash Your Ass!

February 24, 2017

Cleanse, whether it be with sage, Florida water or a blend of proven herbs, do it! Living in your home without cleansing it, is like opening the door for strangers to walk right on in and piss all over the place. And they didn't force their way in, they are on your guest list (via your energy).

Blessings, Love and Understanding,

Auntie Lisa

-Prompted after reading:

"We all need to tend to our daily routine that places food on the table and pays the bills but it does not mean we need to carry the negativity that surrounds us or the unbalanced energy of others. As you maneuver through your day, allow Osun to guide you in removing yourself physically from the negativity and elevate yourself spiritually into a positive realm. Connect with Osun and offer honey and coins to maintain balance in joy and success."

Iyanifa Fakemi Fafolawe (True Ifa)

Spiritual Fear

February 28, 2017

Many things have been on my mind since this past Saturday, Oya's feast day. All were blessed, many elated, a few terrified and most confused.

Being ridden is something..... WOW! My curiosity flows in what others present felt, thought, experienced. So many things make sense, about my life, my.... purpose.

Today, well Monday, my mind lingered on faith versus actual experience, in regards to the spirits, ancestors and the Orisha.

Faith is no more than belief. It needs no more than an acceptance. To pray for a job and to receive a job is easy. It requires only our acceptance and belief that whoever we've prayed to has answered our prayers. However, to pray for a job and have a spirit come before you and actually place it directly in your hands, is something else. It upsets the ego. Often, we put our faith aside, because of human/ fleshly mess- liars in the church; abuse in our lives; insanity of the world. We say or feel that there can be no God with so much mess around us. Perhaps, silently, it confirms us, putting our will, falsely, in our role, in regards to our spiritual strength. Perhaps we feel we are in control and our faith is truly our way of "choosing" to believe or not to believe. We don't say it out loud, but deep down we question the existence. After all, it is not something we experience everyday.

But what happens when that faith is laid in your lap, concrete and very real? There is no doubt, not even a little, of the existence of spirits and an afterlife, and the Orisha.... The unspoken control that we thought we had, our understanding that we've wrapped our lives comfortably around... what happens when there is no more doubt? What happens when our "I'm just studying other paths" or "God is individual to everyone" becomes real? What happens when God stands before us, for real, and literally takes our hand?

To know, without a doubt, that our role on this watery planet is a blessing, a gift, given to us...

To know, without a doubt, that while we are in control of our will, that "will" was given to us. To know that God can just as easily take it away.... That's the flip of experiencing the truth of one's existence- Our fear of God.

Truth is, we know nothing more than flesh. We live. We die. We love. We hate. We fear. It's natural. It's how we've survived. We've learned to mistrust, doubt, and lean on our instincts. We've learned that people lie, steal and kill. We've adjusted our way of thinking according to our upbringing (in the home and outside of it). Our fear has been our divine savior in our desperation to simply live. We're human. Flesh is ruled by fear and fear is what we, too often transpose into our understanding of God. We know the fleshly desire for power, control and conquering. We know that if we could......we would..... Man has fought to survive, to exist, to control others. We wrongly place this human, fleshly persona onto God. We take our desires and make them God's desires. Every religious path has gotten lost it's way. We justify killing in the name of God. We justify everything we do, in the name of God. For, to us, to be God means that we CAN. For us, it's not a question of what WE would do if we could. You know what we would do... if we could.

We can not concretely fathom that God would NOT divide and conquer, rule over, control.... After all, that's what we would do. Because we would (___ fill in the blank), we fear, tangibly, that God would do the same.

In our fear of God, we inevitably seek God's demise.

Superman comes to mind. Superman refuses to kill his enemies, because he knows the fear that humans will have towards him. If he kills our enemies, we will first be elated because our enemy is no more. Then we will begin to say, "Wait! If superman can easily kill my enemy, then he can easily kill me." Then our adoration becomes terror and we then place Superman on the most wanted list, not because he has hurt us, but because (if we were him) he would.

So, at first we are in awe at being shown a miracle. Then, we are in fear(which breeds loathing) and we, because of our limited fleshly make up, begin to pull ourselves away from anything that could possibly prove the existence of God, for that proof will breed fear.

Our limited understanding of God can not fathom the depths of our creator. Even our terminology in the use of the word, "God", incessantly minimizes God's existence to male or female, just to name one common, worldly view.

God is ALL. Our purpose is to overcome the limits of the flesh through the tests of our lives, and ascend once again with our creator. I've known this my whole life. I've had faith in this my whole life. Now, I have unmistakable proof. I do not fear God.

Do not fear God.

Ase'!

Blessings, Love and Understanding,

Lisa

My 2 Cents

April 10, 2017

During last week's(this past Saturday) discussion, the importance of ritual and ceremony was brought up, in regards to how important it may be to us. How do you feel about that?

Personally, as I'm sitting here pondering that very question, my first inclination is to scream, "No! No tutorial allowed"! Then, I back up and swirl the years of doing this, before me and have to contradict myself. My non-ritualism is my ritual! In modesty, I strive to cling to things that are not controlled by others (humans, that is). I constantly seek to tear away anything that, to the least factor, may be solely controlled by the human prerogative. (It always stops, when it comes to the concept of God, but that's my personal barrier).

For example, "the color of the candle" is my constant generality of any information that extends to someone's (anyone's) rational opinion. With that generality, I personally rule out ritual, as nothing more than man's attempt to passively control God. My logic was- What use does God have with specific "man-invented" time periods, objects deemed by man, to be valuable, or countless considerations of the color spectrum, such as the color discrepancy between Brazil's and Cuba's Oggun. Interestingly, I tend to linger with things that have a tangible validity in accordance with this planet, like the vibratory nature of geodes that resonate when in contact with human rhythm.

Hmmmmm, as I sit here and ponder my own thoughts, I realized a possible human instinctive reaction to self- preservation that I may have learned during the course of my existence. Do to my upbringing, I've learned to depend on nothing more than the body I was given this lifetime and math, for its exact nature in accordance with this planet. Because I have learned not to rely on ANYTHING outside of myself (God is in me. -before any contradictions emerge.lol) I am in a constant calculation of the potentially unavailability of.......well, ANYTHING!

What if the moon is waning on the wrong day (that is arguable according to continents and a gazillion years of human's discovering language ) and I can't find the (now extinct) front, right sternum bone of the dodo bird which has only been dead 1 day, etc...

Anything like that, is man (In my opinion) and not God.

So, with that , I go back to the idea of ritual and ceremony.

While I am learning that man's ability to focus his will is paramount in his goal to reach God, I am gaining a respect for its necessity in that very same goal.

What are your thoughts?

-Lisa

Ancestor Communication

April 22, 2017

I awake most mornings with all kinds of thoughts.... some would say that they are mine. I differ. They are not mine. They range from approvals on decisions I have made to warnings of things coming. They are thoughts that I haven't considered (and those who know me, know I consider everything I can think of). I listen to all that I receive and they haven't proved to be wrong, yet. I choose to believe they come from the spirits that project and guide me, my grandmother, to name one. I believe this by the way they are given, the words used, the tone. I know my grandmother. I know how she spoke. It's her. See, I believe, before the Orisha, my ancestors know me best and more often than not, guide me through most of the drama. The Orisha, when necessary are there to boost energy/ power and give additional assistance to my ancestors aid. I, personally don't believe the Orisha help "whether we acknowledge them or not", but I KNOW my grandma did, will, and does help me and any kin that she feels connected to.

Blessings, Love and Understanding,

Lisa

Response to:

"How have the orisha impacted your life?" The orisha are with us always whether we acknowledge them or not. The question was asked " if they are there, helping us anyway, what is the point of Ifa or any spiritual path?" My answer was that though we have our ancestors and orisha our corners, Ifa, as well as many other spiritual paths, teach us how to focus that energy and direct it where we need in our daily lives and towards our spiritual growth. Do you agree, disagree or have anything else to add? I would love to hear your thoughts at today's discussion as well as here.

- Chris

Wash, Wash, Wash! Now, don't you feel good?

April 22, 2017

Don't forget to cleanse your homes, at least once a week.

Every seven days.

Why every Seven days? No reason, just my take on energy building up in my house. It takes about 7 days for energy to build up, in MY house, to where it begins to effect things. Sometimes it's shorter periods of time, depending on visitors, drama etc .... but, generally, it's 7days.

I notice that this appears to be in line with Yemaya. That's cool, because Yemaya, #7, is viewed as the cleansing water, the refreshing water, the mother who makes us bathe, even when we don't know we need it. Ase'!

Now, let me throw something at you. Cute coincidence- we all know the spirits work in our lives.....BUT.... honestly, the 7 days is something that I like to do for MY house!

Now, imagine 600 years from now, we're dead, but my prerogatives/my opinions are alive and well through my daughter, her children, my great great great granddaughters, and anyone else that has been blessed to know anyone related (blood and tribe) to me. Many things have been lost in translation. (Forgive the ego stuff, just making a point.

Something bad happens, the regular life is disrupted for a long time. Someone comes along and says "cleanse your house every 3 days. Papa rules new decisions of change."

Now, there's gonna be issue with folks that do 7 days. See how.... silly, it is to argue over a simple prerogative. Yemaya did not walk out of the sea, stand before me and say 7 days. Papa did not meet a man at an intersection and say 3 days. No.

Now, we knows spirits work in our lives. No doubt. We know they move us to do certain things that we KNOW, without a doubt is sent by them .

However, the spirits were working in our personal lives, for us, individually! If my experience can open the door to helping and assisting someone on the way to peace, then I will share what has worked for me. For ME. If you are moved to do something else, DO IT. (check yourself first to make sure it ain't no earthbound trying to get you to stop protecting yourself)

See, my home will be cleansed regardless of the day, the hour, the purpose, or the moment. The herbs used will do so, but even that is up for personal translation. I hope to get into that , today.

Ase'

Love y'all

After response to, "Ifa: The Whole Point of It All" Discussion

Justice and Inspiration

Nov 27, 2017

So, this month ...wow, this month! November has been an amazingly, exhausting, full-filling 30 days.

December appears poised to bless us with the fruits of our labor and determination.

"Surely, Shango's mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the House of Ifa, forever! Ase'!"

For the month of December, Shango promises to show us, positively (or not), the fruits of our labor, that crop that we have sewn...

Shango's Pataki (story lesson) comes to mind. You know, the one where he jumps stupid and kills his own people, based on a "tip" from the "crowd". He judges himself. Yep! Hard! Shango kills himself as punishment. He is deified for his wrath....

Now, let's step back from the "suicide" part. That's a bit much, now a days. After all, we are not at war (at least we shouldn't be) , in which we're battling our neighbors with shotguns and pitchforks. The chance that we kill anyone should be non-existant.

My focus on this Pataki has always been the pendulum of Shango's axe. It swings both ways, ya know. Shango was known for unleashing his wrath on others, judging and administering punishment. "Judge Dredd", played by Sylvester Stallone, is a pretty good representation of Shango on a good day.

But what happens when WE put this lesson of self-judgement over ourselves? What happens when we must look at ourselves with a private frankness and say, "Me, that was really messed up what I did!" ?

The cool thing about judging one's self is that YOU should know YOURSELF better than anyone. You should be able to see one of your temper tantrums, selfish hoarding or down-right cattiness from a mile away....right?

Just thinking out loud....

I'm rambling. Forgive me.

Look, my point of all this is to LEARN yourself, honestly! So what, if you have some bad habits. You must admit them, to fix them. Hopefully, you won't put them to rest like King Shango, here. Instead, put your bad habits to rest by acknowledging them, accepting them, taking control of them and then burying them....

And get this, since no one comes with a Book of Life when we are born....Know that mistakes and re-emergences are okay. After all, bad habits can be like Zombies, sometimes you have to whack em a few times.